O’Reilly Dines in Harlem, Talks About It, Then Hears About It

It was not your typical day at Sylvia’s restaurant, the famous soul food institution in Harlem. A CNN crew showed up around lunchtime yesterday, interviewed patrons and filmed some close-ups of a plate of food. Reporters cornered tourists with questions about their dining experience, and the restaurant’s regulars called, not to make an order, but to ask about the controversy.

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The food, atmosphere and clientele at Sylvia’s were a matter of nationwide attention yesterday because Bill O’Reilly, the Fox News Channel talk show host, recently described being surprised to find that the black-owned establishment was as pleasant as other restaurants.
“It was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense of people were sitting there, and they were ordering and having fun,” Mr. O’Reilly said on his nationally syndicated radio show on Sept. 19. “And there wasn’t any kind of craziness at all.”
His comments have outraged some black leaders and baffled black New Yorkers, many of whom said yesterday they were puzzled by what sort of craziness Mr. O’Reilly would expect to find at Sylvia’s, since the Lenox Avenue restaurant is a favorite of Harlem residents, international tourists and former President Bill Clinton.
Indeed, yesterday afternoon, as Mr. O’Reilly accurately described, iced teas were ordered with civility, not hostility. Servers behind the counter were shoveling ice into glasses and dishing out macaroni and cheese, greens, chicken and some of the other specialties. Black and white customers described Mr. O’Reilly variously as living under a rock, or ignorant of black Americans, or, in the words of one diner, George Hymen, 68, “nutty in the head.”
“The idea that people would be in here acting out, cussing, is kind of archaic,” said Beverly Wilburn, 63, a clothing designer who lives nearby and sat at the counter munching on a sandwich and sipping coffee. “I would laugh if I didn’t think it was sad.”
Some diners said they did not want to judge Mr. O’Reilly too harshly. Samuel Johnson, 49, who went to Sylvia’s after reading about the controversy, said he had met Mr. O’Reilly in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. He was working as a chef at a Lower Manhattan restaurant where Mr. O’Reilly had worked as a volunteer, serving meals. “When I heard the derogatory comments I was like, ‘Wow,’” Mr. Johnson said. “Over all, I don’t think he’s a bad guy. He just made some bad comments.”
Mr. O’Reilly told The Associated Press yesterday that his comments had been taken out of context. “If you listened to the full hour, it was a criticism of racism on the part of white Americans who are ignorant of the fact that there is no difference between white and black anymore,” he said. “Circumstances may be different in their lives, but we’re all Americans. Anyone who would be offended by that conversation would have to be looking to be offended.”
Irena Briganti, a spokeswoman for Fox News Channel, said the network had no comment beyond the statement given earlier this week by Bill Shine, the network’s senior vice president for programming. “This is nothing more than left-wing outlets stirring up false racism accusations for ratings,” Mr. Shine said. “It’s sad.”
The Rev. Al Sharpton, whom Mr. O’Reilly had been dining with when he visited Sylvia’s, appeared on Mr. O’Reilly’s television show last night and said he wanted to hear the radio show before reaching any conclusions. “You and I have gone to dinner before in Harlem, and I’ve never heard you say anything offensive,” Mr. Sharpton said.
H. Kenneth Woods, the president and chief executive of Sylvia’s and the son of Sylvia Woods, the restaurant’s founder, seemed to take the publicity in stride. He said he was happy that Mr. O’Reilly enjoyed his visit. “I was surprised that after all these years in business he would have thought that he would’ve possibly seen something different,” he said. “He’s welcome to come again.”
Mr. O’Reilly, who has earned legions of fans and detractors across the country for lashing out at Democratic politicians, illegal immigrants and a daily cast of characters he calls pinheads, found himself in the middle of a controversy caused not by a rant but by what he considered to be a compliment. Mr. O’Reilly’s Web site, www.billoreilly.com, posted an audio clip of the show and asked people to listen to the actual broadcast and “decide for yourself.”
The strange tale of Mr. O’Reilly’s dinner in Harlem shows what can happen when a right-leaning talk show host shares a meal with Mr. Sharpton, has a splendid time and then discusses the experience in detail on a national radio program, diving into the thorny matter of white perceptions of black culture.

A Small Slice of the Grand Life

Park Life (September 27, 2007)

EVEN in a turn-of-the-century gated enclave famous for its architectural extravagance, a freestanding ballroom built into a rocky hillside with urn-shaped finials, huge windows rising to fanlight transoms, a limestone balustrade and a 28-foot ceiling is an unlikely choice for a weekend getaway. But when this one came up for sale, Jack and Kim Kilgore had no hesitations. “It was quite impractical,” Mr. Kilgore said, but “quite magical, and we have never for a moment regretted it.”
It was also, in spite of its opulence, a one-bedroom house, thanks to a conversion in the 1960s, and in that sense one of the most modest dwellings in town. A 2,050-acre gated community in Orange County, less than 50 miles north of New York City, Tuxedo Park is known for its scores of enormous mansions, built by some of most prominent American architects of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and ranging in style from shingle style to Arts and Crafts, Tudor to French chateau, Italianate to pure Shangri-La. In a setting like this — the splendor of which has just been documented in a 350-page book, “Tuxedo Park: The Historic Houses,” and will be showcased in an upcoming photography exhibition — it would be easy to overlook a 1920s annex to a long-demolished mansion. The Ballroom, as the building has always been called, is almost an afterthought in the book, sequestered in a section about the town’s lost houses. But the Kilgores set their sights on it the moment they learned it existed.
That was in 1997, when they came to Tuxedo Park to look at another house. Sitting in the broker’s office, Ms. Kilgore noticed a flier advertising the Ballroom, and was told that it was a local folly, under contract to Whoopi Goldberg. “My heart sank,” Ms. Kilgore said, “because I knew at once it was exactly what I wanted.”
For the next two years, the Kilgores — he deals in old masters and has a gallery, Jack Kilgore & Company, in New York; she was working as an adviser to clients at Christie’s at the time — kept coming back to Tuxedo Park. Friends would invite them up, and although they were always on the lookout for a house to buy, nothing compared to the Ballroom. Then, in 1999, Ms. Goldberg, who had decided to buy a larger house nearby, put this one up for sale.
WHEN the Kilgores bought it in 1999 for just under $1.3 million, the Ballroom still had one of its crystal chandeliers, but the parquet flooring, interior lattice work, floor-to-ceiling mirror and indoor fountain, all visible in an old photograph they had seen, were gone. What remained was a shell that needed a lot of work.
The Ballroom had been built in 1926 by Amory Carhart Jr. and his wife, Isadora, possibly in celebration of a daughter’s society debut. It originally faced Villa Blanca, an Italianate mansion built by the first Amory Carhart, an heir to a banking and railroad fortune, in 1900 — 15 years after Tuxedo Park was established by a tobacco magnate tired of life in Newport, R.I. Nothing is known about the Ballroom’s architect (the main house, torn down in the 1940s, is believed to have been designed by McKim, Mead & White), but the building, particularly the interior, bears a resemblance to the Petit Trianon at Versailles. Amory Carhart III, whom the Kilgores reached through a friend a few years ago, told them that it was built as a place for the family to hold its parties.
The original 60s conversion had cut off about a third of the space to make room for a kitchen and dining area downstairs and an upstairs bedroom and bathroom. Ms. Goldberg had replaced the rotted parquet floor with oak flooring, and divided the kitchen and dining area with a wall. The Kilgores considered doing a full-scale renovation, but having bought a house in New York City and decided not to live full time in Tuxedo Park, they opted to simply divide the bedroom in two to create a room for their daughter, India, now 6. Instead, they focused on bringing the Ballroom back to its original grandeur.
A room that measures approximately 75 by 45 feet and has such a high ceiling presents a decorating challenge. To unify the space, the Kilgores replaced the original lattice work in the alcoves with a series of 12 plaster plaques of classical themes that they had cast in Paris (the originals are in the Louvre). They painted the walls and hung an eclectic mixture of modern and classical art, often in small groupings since anything short of an enormous painting would be lost on its own on walls so big. A beige wool carpet covers the floor, tying the room together and dulling the echo caused by the height of the ceiling. On it rests an Aubusson rug, bought at auction in London. Scale, of course, is all-important, so the furniture, much of it 18th century, is oversize.

If Not Now

Will Okun is a Chicago school teacher who traveled with Nick Kristof in June to central Africa, on the win-a-trip contest. He blogged and vlogged as he went, and you can see his reports at www.nytimes.com/twofortheroad. He teaches English and photography in a Chicago school with many students from low-income and minority homes.
After our school’s parent-teacher conferences, the teachers complain disappointedly, “We didn’t see the parents we needed to see.”
Yes, Ms. Reed, your son is doing excellent work. He comes to school on time every day, does all of his work to the best of his abilities and respects others.
But where is Ms. Henry, whose daughter is frequently absent and always tardy, who puts forth minimal effort and is a constant disruption?
In my opinion, this phenomenon is no coincidence. Parents who usually attend conferences appear to be more vested in their children’seducation and that is why their children are succeeding in school. Parents who rarely attend conferences, or other teacher-requested meetings, are seemingly less involved in their children’s education and that is why their children are struggling in school.